Friday, March 21, 2008

Blowback...

There's a lot of people upset about the long refurb of "It's A Small World" going on right now. The renovation which is due to be done at the end of the year has attracted an unusually large amount of attention lately with the announcement that classic Disney characters will be placed in geographical relation to their stories.

It seems that Brady MacDonald over at the L.A. Times Travel Blog and the Re-Imagineering Blog have stirred up quite a bit of dust. The guys at WDI are scrambling to make sure the public doesn't turn on them. In an open letter to them Kevin Blair(Mary Blair's son), had smacked the Mouse across the face about some of the proposed changes. Now, from what I know most of the changes are due to age and not because of weight... this ride hasn't had an extensive refurb like this in decades. The changes involved in adding the characters were supposed to be subtle with the style fitting more closely to that of Blair's artwork, but it has a divided camp inside WDI as well. Some feel that they shouldn't be messing with the classic attraction while others feel the need to tinker with the ride now that there is an opening during this long refurbishment.

The publicity arm seems to be trying to control the damage from people sending e-mails and all the media exposure that is shining a light on this. Some people are saying this is not near as big a departure as the "Pirates" refurb and that fans should wait and judge the results come the Holidays...

One things for sure, when Disney starts enhancing the classic attractions it better tread lightly and carefully. This story about a Small World seems to be becoming very big.

I'm mixed on the revamping of any Disney attraction. Granted, I've never been to the west coast park, but I've been to the east coast park, and I was bored out of my mind on "The It's a Small World" attraction. Of course, on the other hand, I wasn't impressed with the changes made to "Pirates of the Caribbean", so take all of that as you will. :P

Second, the proposed character-related additions to DL's Small World are ONLY rumors that were started by people like Al Lutz because Hong Kong's version of the attraction is going to include Mary Blair-ized versions of Disney characters.

It's reasons like that why I hate certain overrated, overly-negative sites like MiceAge and the Re-Imagineering blog--the people that dominate those sites clearly have issues and need to get lives and quit ragging on EVERYTHING that Disney does these days...and people should stop reading them at once, IMO!

If Walt was still alive, I bet Small World would have been replaced about 5 times by now with different rides. Now that he's gone, everyone thinks it's a sin to remove ANYTHING. I'm pretty sure Walt said Disneyland would not become a museum, but that's what everyone wants it to be apparently.

I'm glad they are doing SOMETHING to a ride even though it doesn't need it. That's exactly what Disney does. You "plus" rides even if they don't need it. Whether it turns out good or bad, I'm just happy they are actually spending money in what they think is an improvement instead of just keeping things the way they are forever.

With the Pirates of the Caribbean refurb they did back in 2006, the Disney Imagineers got X Atencio, who wrote the theme song and much of the storyboard, to consult on the changes. I'm glad the chase scene doesn't have food anymore. Also, the change from the drunk pirate, who originally was searching for women and then food when they decided to make it PC, is now asking about Jack Sparrow, who's hiding in the barrel is better than the PC garbage they pulled a couple of years ago.

Now, in regards to It's a Small World, they talked about fancier entry and exit ways, which sounds good, but there's no need to put Disney characters subtly in the ride. The only change I would make is for the Holidays, call it It's A Small World Christmas and have it say Merry Christmas somewhere in the ride since 95 percent of the population celebrates Christmas in some way or another. Otherwise, don't fix what isn't broken and let the original version of the ride keep its uniqueness from other versions. Keep the exterior white, yellow and gold and the interior what we've seen all these years, except for the "brought to you by Bank of America" mention which went away years ago anyway.

The rainforest scene removal is also nothing more than a rumor made up by Al Lutz just to get attention.

Besides, the room that contains the rainforest scene is too small for a North America scene anyway. And they'd have to cover it over with black curtains anyway when they do the holiday overlay (like the Xmas version already does when it takes place).

"I'd rather they put some resources into putting some life into Tomorrowland, IasW is perfect as it is, aside from the aging building."

Agreed. And all the building needs is some TLC. Maintain, don't destroy.

"I'm just happy they are actually spending money in what they think is an improvement instead of just keeping things the way they are forever."

That's the spirit. Change everything all willy-nilly so you've got something to market next year with no regard to tone, style, theme, mood, setting, meaning, or any of those silly things that used to factor into attractions.

As a parent who spends a good deal of time during the summer roaming the park with my kids....I only pray they keep he air conditioning cranked-up as they always have! Aside from being a great relaxing ride, it offers hot, tired parents a well deserved cooling off:)

If I actually thought that Disney had any other reason behind these changes other than selling more character crap, then I'd be fully behind them. But it's quite obvious that these changes are only motivated by one thing - greed.

Disney recently got smacked by the members of the Disney Vacation Club for removing glassware, and replacing with styrofoam in all the studio units. The glassware is back. Public demand can make a difference.

If I actually thought that Disney had any other reason behind these changes other than selling more character crap, then I'd be fully behind them. But it's quite obvious that these changes are only motivated by one thing - greed.

Sorry, but that is not true and you know it! You people need to stop thinking of EVERYTHING the company does as a scheme to sell merchandise--that's a VERY flawed mentality, IMO.

Let's please put this issue to rest--the DL Small World change rumors are only RUMORS!

How exactly is that not true? Just what other reason could there be? It's not like the ride needs to have Disney characters added to somehow make it relevant to today's audiences. The ride has been doing just fine for the past 40 years, so why add characters expect as a way to sell stuff?

Trust me, I'm all for updating Small World - if it's done tastefully and in the spirit of the original ride. But adding cartoon characters adds NOTHING to the message of World Peace - it only detracts from it.

I do not know nor would i pretend to know what walt would do. my hunch is yes, he would have 'plussed' the ride. how? who knows. what if any input would mary blair have had? again, would be guessing. walt was very strong minded and i don't think he would have given her much if any input. (my guess and IMHO)do I tend to want the walt disney parts of the park frozen in time? yes, i am guilty of that.

do i want the ride changed? no, not really. does it need to be done? yes, i think so. now, the hard part....how?

that being said, it is good to see this spirited debate and i am just thankful walt left ~us~ such a wonderful responsibility. it is amazing that we care so much about 82 acres.

my personal opinion: i think walt would get a kick out of all this, then go do what ever he thought was needed. it's a company now. sacred ground to a lot of us, but it belongs to the company HE left. maybe a little trust will go a long way.

How do you know kingcrab? You sound terribly sure of yourself, but I think it may only be because of your personal dislike for Al Lutz (which isn't very rational). I haven't heard anyone who is generally thought to have insider knowledge or contacts deny this rumor yet. Not Honor, not Bean on LP, nor any other. Disney could've categorically denied this by now, but they haven't, they've just been noncommittal with their responses. Why would Honor even make a post about this if it had no substance?

"He is more wrong than he is right... yet his followers have this amazing knack to ignore what he gets wrong and run with what he gets right."

It all comes with the territory. I would hope that most of his readers are smart enough to realize that they are reading a gossip site and not a news site.

Lutz deals with news not yet released to the public. So when something doesn't come to fruition was Al wrong or did Disney just decide to cancel that particular project? There's really no way to know.

I wonder how many people who badmouth Lutz also read PerezHilton or TMZ and don't badmouth them for being wrong or just downright unethical.

Listen, if you just want to comment on things you read in Disney press releases nothing is stopping you from doing so. But from the looks of it many people enjoy commenting on Disneyland gossip, rumors, and speculation and they will continue to do so.

I always wondered what was meant by DFs (Disney foamers), but this whole Small World debate has crystalized it for me. I love Disney and Disneyland just as much as the next guy, but COME ON PEOPLE. Small World is NOT Haunted Mansion (which has been changed numerous times) nor is it Pirates (which again has been changed). DFs complain about these changes, BUT the general public (the ones paying the bills) LOVE these changes. Look at the lines for Pirates since the change. Look at the lines for Tom Sawyers Island (I admit I was concerned about that one, but pleasantly surprised). NO ONE in the general public (80+% of the people coming in the front gate) are going to say, "OH no, the addition of Disney characters changes the meaning of the message of Small World's message of World peace." They will say, "Cool, look at Peter Pan (or whoever they put in there)."